The European Court of Justice has ruled that a law on foreign universities operating in Hungary breaches EU law. The measure forced a Budapest university founded by US-Hungarian billionaire George Soros to move abroad.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Kisbenedek
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The EU's top court on Tuesday ruled that a Hungarian law that forced the relocation of Central European University (CEU) out of the country was not in line with EU law.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, saying "the conditions introduced by Hungary to enable foreign higher education institutions to carry out their activities in its territory are incompatible with EU law."
Part of the law required foreign universities operating in Hungary to strike a bilateral agreement between the country's nationalist government and the universities' country of origin, and also to offer teaching services in its home country.
Orban vs. Soros
The government had rejected a claim by the George Soros-founded CEU that it complied with the controversial law requiring foreign-headquartered universities to operate a campus in their home country.
The ECJ said this infringed on World Trade Organization rules on fair market access and acted contrary to the provisions of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which protects academic freedom and the freedom to conduct a business.
The CEU — which is registered in the United States where Soros lives but has its main campus in Budapest — said it had complied with the law after opening a facility in the US state of New York.
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Thousands of people protested in support of CEU after it announced plans to leave the country in 2018Image: Imago/ZUMA Press/O. Marques
Crackdown on academic freedom
But a Hungarian government spokesperson called the American site "a Potemkin campus" [a reference to the fake villages reportedly set up in imperial Russia to impress the visiting Empress Catherine II — Editor's note] that failed to satisfy the law.
Attracting students from over 100 countries and offering US-accredited master's programs, CEU, founded in 1991, had long been seen by Orban as a hostile bastion of liberalism.
Orban's government has clamped down on academic freedom more broadly in recent years, for example, by banning universities from teaching gender studies.
The Hungarian leader has also targeted Soros personally, accusing the Hungarian-born Jewish philanthropist of destroying European civilization by promoting illegal immigration into the country.
Soros has said his support for refugees is part of a larger humanitarian mission to back open societies around the world.
Viktor Orban's most controversial migration comments
Hungary's right-wing prime minister has been one of Europe's leading voices against migration into the EU. Unafraid of controversy, he has described migration as an "invasion" and migrants as a "poison."
Image: Reuters/B. Szabo
'Muslim invaders'
"We don't see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders," Orban said in a recent interview with German daily Bild newspaper. The 54-year-old prime minister of Hungary added: "We believe that a large number of Muslims inevitably leads to parallel societies, because Christian and Muslim society will never unite." Multiculturalism, he said, "is only an illusion."
Image: Reuters/F. Lenoir
'You wanted the migrants, we didn't'
When asked by Bild whether it was fair for Germany to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants while Hungary accepted none, Orban responded: "The difference is, you wanted the migrants, and we didn't." Migration, he said, threatens the "sovereignty and cultural identity" of Hungary.
Image: Reuters/L. Balogh
'Migration is poison'
It was not the first time the Hungarian leader has framed migration as a problem for his country. In 2016, he said that Hungary "does not need a single migrant for the economy to work, or the population to sustain itself, or for the country to have a future." He added: "for us migration is not a solution but a problem ... not medicine but a poison, we don’t need it and won’t swallow it.”
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP Photo/P. Gorondi
'Importing homophobia'
Orban has repeatedly criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her decision to allow over a million migrants into Germany in the summer of 2015. Orban told Bild in early 2016: "If you take masses of non-registered immigrants from the Middle East into your country, you are importing terrorism, crime, anti-Semitism, and homophobia."
Image: Reuters/L. Balogh
'All terrorists are basically migrants'
Orban has also repeatedly criticized the EU for trying to get member states to share refugees based on national quotas. In a 2015 interview with POLITICO, he suggested the bloc's leaders instead focus more on strengthening the EU's external border. In the same interview, he said: "Of course it’s not accepted, but the factual point is that all the terrorists are basically migrants."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Bozon
'Parallel societies'
Orban has found allies in other right-wing governments in eastern Europe such as Poland that also oppose the EU's refugee policies. In an interview with Spanish TV channel Intereconomia in 2015, Orban raised fears about integrating Muslim migrants in the EU when he said: "What sort of Europe do we want to have? Parallel societies? Muslim communities living together with the Christian community?"
